"We believe in leveraged thinking for our clients, but to truly live it we felt it necessary to create our own stand-alone companies that could build on our communication strategies and further assist our clients' growth efforts," says Gareth Leck, CEO of Joe Public.
"The two new agencies will be managed and operated independently but will be provided with strategic and channel planning by the main agency. This approach offers our existing clients seamless integration between the specialist companies and the main agency and leverages one of the strengths of the agency; strategic planning. It also allows for the leadership of the new companies to develop their own personal relationships with our clients. The beauty of the structure is that our new companies have started with a host of blue chips, so they have a great foundation to work with."
Ignite's philosophy is summed up by its 'Igniting growth' positioning. "Igniting growth means leaving behind the expected below-the-line structures to create growth platforms that change the category's playing fields. This takes quality thinking and creativity," says Van Jaarsveldt. "We believe that the quality of our clients' ROI depends on how much our thinking can elevate their brand's influence in its category, through quality interactions and marketing innovations. We call this Return On Ignition."
"Ignition thinking is the understanding that below-the-line doesn't have to be a slave to short-term imperatives. It's our belief that below-the-line is a space where long-term growth platforms are created. We know a quick fix is unlikely to create sustainable growth," adds Capstick.
The agency is working on existing clients such as Anglo American, Foodcorp, Incolabs, Colgate Palmolive and Jet and has recently won a number of pitches on brands such as Unilever and SAB.
Michalski has headed up the award-winning brand design division since 2006, but it operated as a supporting service and sat within the main agency. A decision was recently made by the partners to open a separate brand design company and Joe Public Shift was born. It is currently involved in major re-branding assignments for Assupol, Clover and Cobra and is working on other brand design opportunities for clients such as DialDirect, eBucks, Foodcorp and Jet.
Says Michalski, "Our design solutions are based on sound strategic insights and ideas explored in collaboration with the main agency's strategic department. We believe brand design has a very significant part to play in the journey towards growth. To this end we subscribe to leveraged thinking, which means that at every step of the road we make conscious design choices that positively assist in delivering on our clients' business strategies."
Next year will see the launch of a specialist PR business, as well as a digital offering on the same principle as the two new agencies.
"We have set ourselves the challenge of growing the agency, but we are not chasing growth at all costs. Rather, we see its growth as the end result of our strategy to grow our people and our clients," concludes Leck.
